At this point, what is the point of the Eastern Conference? Yipee....LeBron will represent the East for the gazillionth time in a row. Not exactly much of an accomplishment when so much of the talent in the NBA is in the West. #ReSeedThePlayoffs.
Maybe now people will see why I say the city of Portland sucks and is totally unappealing to NBA players. (Yeah, some learn to love the place, but few of them actually live in Portland, and visiting players see only the area they don't reside or recreate in.) When Minny and OKC are more appealing destinations, you know the city itself is undermining the team's best efforts.
For better or worse, Greg Monroe chose Milwaukee over Portland, Chandler Parsons chose Memphis over Portland (thankfully) and Melo chose OKC over even giving Portland a chance. It is why I wanted the best Draft picks possible because good FAs aren't coming here and veterans won't waive their NTC to be traded here. Getting trounced by the Warriors when the team had been as bad as the #7 Lottery seed not that much earlier was not exactly a reward. Cities like Portland need the best Draft picks they can muster to have control over that player for as long as possible. Of course they will have to get a little lucky but outside of that, players just aren't coming here. Which is sad because players that actually do come here love it and often retire here.
Meh... One, or more, of these teams will underachieve. They can't all come in second. Some will have fit issues (only need ball, and in OKC Westbrook OWNS that ball, HOU's three best players are all guards and all need the ball to be most effective, etc.) and some will have injuries. As tough as the division is, I actually think the Blazers will win more this year than the 41 games they win last year. We won't be fighting for second place, but the tough competition will help this young team grow. Then, as these latest super friends teams decline due to advancing age, we will be primed to pass them all. BNM
So, you think getting Nurk was a mistake? Because that trade is exactly why we weren't in the lottery. And in the end we got a better player in Nurk than we would have gotten with the 7th pick and used the first round pick we got in that trade to help get Zach Collins. The options ended up being Nurk plus Collins or the 7th pick in the draft. I know which I prefer, and that doesn't change even if Zach Collins ends up being a total bust and is Meyers Leonard 2.0. I don't believe he will be, but that's how much I believe Nurk is WAY better than anything we could have gotten with the 7th pick. BNM
Nah, remember they all get to play each other. The East will have a terrible record against the West, but someone needs to win when East plays East. BNM
God this sucks..... every hipster in America wants to move here, but we can't get a single star player to love us.
makes me wonder what truly the best strategy is if you are the Blazers. You have three assets that could net significant returns. One is 22, and due for a huge payday. One is elite and right now in his prime but realistically isn't getting past the second round at best. And CJ is a really, really good young player who is borderline all star. Do you build around Nurk and CJ, deal Lillard for picks/younger player and hope for a top 1-3 pick? Or emotionally it's too hard to deal Lillard?
It's not that emotionally it'd be too hard... it'd be the backlash. We just got done saying it's hard as hell to get FA's to come here because of the (percieved) lack of love for this city.. then you trade the one guy who has fallen in love with this city and is "loyal to the soil"... what kind of message does that send? It'd be backwards to then trade a person who has publicly on all chances said he loves this city.
If the only thing that's important is championships (which I don't think is the case), then trading Dame and possibly CJ for future assets is the smartest move. You keep Nurk, and start setting things in motion to have elite players built around Nurk in the next 4 years. But because sports is about more than just championships I don't think you trade Dame. As GM I would constantly be in contact with Dame to see if he ever wavers from his current position of being willing not to win it all if he can't do it in Portland. As long as he's committed to being a one-team player for his entire career you keep him. If you can't win a championship, having a legacy player is the next best thing IMO. If Dame can be our Reggie Miller or John Stockton that would be great. The Blazers don't have that sort of legacy player - Dame would be our first. Of course, I hope that Dame becomes our Tim Duncan, but if not I'll be fine with him being our Miller/Stockton.
There's a simple solution here. Let's forget about the NBA and start cheering for hipsters. We'll win the championship most every year and we can have parades. barfo
Nobody knew he would be as good as he was when he got traded. We did that trade to get out of paying Plumlee and added that draft pick, Nurk was a bonus flier on a pouting out of shape guy that needed a change of scenery. We did hit pay dirt though, absolutely. Another 2 or 3 trades like that and we might have something.
My prediction of 41 wins is about right. I thought we’d lose our games to OKC anyway. This bones guy isn’t serious right talking that we could finish ahead of everybody but GS because we are deeper?!? Get the fuck outta here FAMS
